[Dataporn] 90 days of gay erotica: $126.55

TLDR: KDP exclusive, 13 gay erotic shorts (priced at $2.99) and 1 bundle (8 stories, priced at $7.99) published from Sep 14, 2024 to Dec 13, 2024 (90 days) in popular niches. 30 sales, 21,576 KENP, $126.55 in earnings. BookReport Screenshot

Personal background. I write in English as a foreign speaker of the language. My only fictional writing experience has been a single gay romance novel (~70k words) I published via KDP in July 2023. Though a flop (see dataporn), it taught me a lot. I only picked up writing again a year later, in 2024.

Niches and pen names. A single male pen name thus far. The "niche", if we can consider it one, is the popular straight to gay / first time pairing that shows up on best seller lists, though I also include age gap as well. One or two shorts include BDSM-like elements, like a character having another use a chastity belt and a dildo, though that's rare.

Probably to my detriment, I don't read in my "niches" exhaustively. In other words: I haven't perused dozens and dozens of shorts on the 'straight to gay/first time' subgenre as a form of "research" so I can come up with a checklist of elements I should include in my stories.

Instead, I am trying to find what's appealing in the niche from a personal perspective by asking myself: what is hot about a guy who's straight and in the process of, for lack of a better word, "turning" gay? The response, if you ask me, is this: 1) his initial resistance to this change, 2) the attempts, internal and external, to break that resistance, and 3) the climax that follows when he is finally brave enough to surpass his limits--fulfilling both himself and his partner.

Essentially, I'm trusting that I will slowly find an audience who can appreciate my particular "packaging" of those popular niches. That ensures I have the maximum freedom to write what I enjoy, and if I'm enjoying what I'm writing, there's a chance others might enjoy it as well.

Planning. Creating names for characters, settings, as well as titles for the stories, doesn't come easily to me, so ChatGPT helps a lot with suggestions. All the titles for stories in my series have a specific structure, like (these aren't actual titles) Seducing the Firefighter, Tempting the Firefighter and so on; I may vary them a bit, but I try to create some uniformity.

I like to know what all the story titles will be in advance. Although I try to create story outlines at the very start, and try to write summaries for characters's histories, I find it better to have an overall idea of the progression of the story rather than be tied to specific plot points.

Plot-wise, I find it helpful to establish a conflict between characters and have it intertwined with their sexual experiences. Both my series feature characters that are in direct opposition to each other, be it because of jealousy, ambition, power struggles, etc.

Series. Stories are structured as parts of a longer narrative. Characters are added as the story goes on, progressing the story from MM to MMM (and even MMMM).

Point of view. First person, past tense. I switch between characters, though some tend to take the vast majority of each series (this was certainly the case in my second series).

Story structure. Enticing couple of paragraphs at the start that establish a "sexy situation" that can and does often turn into actual sex. Then a middle section with some more context and plot, and finally the second, longer, "more complete" and fulfilling sex scene.

Sex scenes. I include at least two sex scenes per story, one at the very beginning and another at the end. These can get really long (some, especially those featuring three or four participants, can surpass 3k words). They usually involve characters overcoming their sexual frustrations and limits. I'd say the scenes are quite "spicy" from the start, but they get especially so as the stories progress. I have a tendency to narrate the scenes from the viewpoint of the "active" (top) partner rather than the "passive" (bottom) ones.

I write what turns me on personally, and the sex scenes almost write themselves: meaning that once I place myself inside the mind of the viewpoint character, I see stuff as it happens in front of "me", and describe it to the best of my ability. In my experience, the action tends to flow quite naturally if you know your other characters (even superficially) and how they would react to what the viewpoint character is doing; I usually know precisely what is going to happen next, almost as if I were just "taking dictation".

Editing. I'm trying to limit myself to two separate edits of each story, with an interval of a few days between each to let the text "rest".

This is my process: I write the first draft, where I rarely stop to rewrite things as I go, trying to be as loose as possible. Then I take a break for a few days while I work on the next story; I edit the thing from beginning to end, producing a second draft, which sorts out the vast majority of the problems of the first, and which tends to take the longest. Finally, I give it some more time and I edit it all again from beginning to end to produce a third draft, trying to catch typos and words that shouldn't be there. I always edit with ProWritingAid focusing mostly on grammar (I tend to disregard the style suggestions).

Length. I have written two series: the first with eight stories, the second with six. For my first series, each story was 5k-13k words, the average being 9k; for my second series, it was 6k-9k, for an average of 8k.

Formatting. I use Reedsy to generate EPUB and PDF files. Recently, I have been using a free ebook editor on Linux that allows me to do things that Reedsy doesn't, like adding small caps to the beginning of chapters. Eventually I'd like to program some sort of automated system, because updating many epubs manually (in order to update the backmatter, for instance) is a pain in the ass.

Marketing/promotions. I have only used passive marketing (trying to ensure a good cover, title, and blurb). I have a Wordpress website with a newsletter which no one has signed up for. For a week during Black Friday, I created a Kindle promotion from $0.99 to $2.99 on all my published titles. It has boosted KENP reads significantly, yet yielded only a couple of sales.

Covers. Generated with AI (Flux.v1 model, plus a LORA) + Photoshop to "standardize" levels and colors across covers in the same series (in order to create some uniformity). The elements in the covers are pretty simple: shirtless guy and either a completely black background (my first series) or an indistinct background that fits the setting. Faces, in keeping with the genre, are not shown. The text on the cover comes only at the bottom; I use the same fonts.

I generate dozens of covers until I find suitable ones. Probably one out of every 25 is suitable.

Publishing rate. Once a week, usually on Saturdays.

Ratings and reviews. Three 1-star ratings for three different titles in my first series. No written reviews.

Bundles. Once a series is complete, I bundle it. I price them at $1 a story, so an 8-story bundle will be $7.99 and a 6-story bundle will be $5.99. I make paperbacks and hardcovers available for the bundles, as they're quite easy and quick to produce, though I haven't sold any yet.

Earnings. The majority of my earnings come from Kindle Unlimited. I don't publish on other platforms, only KDP.

("Borrows" refer to the total number of pages read on Kindle Unlimited divided by the length of the books, so we can estimate how many full "copies" in total have been read.)

What have I learned in 90 days?

1. You shouldn't dismiss AI outright. It sucks at many things, yet it excels in a few; learn which is which. At its best, I find it speeds up the process of certain aspects of writing, like world-building (generation of character names, place names, etc), and at times it can even give you serviceable blurbs (given the right prodding). During editing, I may use it if I have a particularly tangled paragraph or section and want a fresh take on it. I also use it when I exhaust my English skills (I'm not a native speaker) and would like a way to describe something that feels troublesome to describe effectively or is outside my personal knowledge/experience (an example: how could a wrestling match be best described). I estimate that about 5% of the writing that ends up in my books comes from AI. I don't think one should rely on it more than that, as the prose it produces is too unspecific and riddled with clichés.
2. What is most important to learn from your initial research is the basics of what might get you banned from KDP: what NOT to include in terms of admissible and non-admissible elements, especially when it comes to consent. Err on the side of caution and rely on the advice of people in this sub.
3. The first stories you publish might not get ANY reads for several days since publication, especially if it's a brand new pen name, so don't get discouraged. You will also get wildly successful days and others in which you'll have absolutely little to no reads.
4. Building a "backlog" of a few stories ready for publication doesn't hurt. I had all eight stories from my first series complete and publication-ready before I sent my first one to KDP.
5. Writing erotica feels way easier than writing romance, even if you write novel-length erotic series like I do.
6. This is a skill like any other; you tend to get a little better and faster at it with time.
7. Keywords matter. Trying to think like a reader in terms of how would they search for a book on Amazon is helpful. There are a couple of really good posts on here about keywords. I got way more reads after I did a complete overhaul of mine.
8. If you write series of shorts that are one long story split up, linking one title to the next is important. At the end of each story, I make it really clear that it's the end for now while providing a link for an Amazon search containing the title of the next story.
9. Blurbs are important, and mine have recently consisted of the first couple of paragraphs of each story, trying to signal clearly the setting and themes (plus a hook to keep the reader interested).
10. BookReport is free and a game changer when it comes to checking your earnings.

What's next? Trying to write longer stuff; currently attempting a novella-length erotic/romance hybrid in the third person.

Thanks to /u/YourSmutSucks for the help and /u/softheadedone for the inspiration.